Mental health profile of the elderly community: a cross-sectional study

to describe the mental health profile of the elderly registered in a Family Health Unit in the city of Recife, Pernambuco State. it was a descriptive quantitative study, conducted with 159 elderly through the scales Geriatric Depression, Resilience, Social Support, Life Satisfaction, and Positive and Negative Affects, Mini-Mental State Examination, Stressful Events Inventory and Brazil Old Age Shedule. females, young and literate elderly predominated. Most were satisfied with life, 52.2% without depressive symptoms, 68.6% without cognitive impairment, 67.9% high resilience and 95.8% high social support, but 62% of elderly with depressive symptoms showed cognitive deficit. Negative correlation was identified between depression and cognitive impairment, resilience, social support and life satisfaction. assessment of these indicators identifies triggers of psychological distress, assisting the nursing staff in the development of preventive and care actions.